


Hall of Memories

by mydramaticflair (rainbowshirbert)



Series: Taking Flight (HTTYD Oneshots) [5]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, post httyd3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25620511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowshirbert/pseuds/mydramaticflair
Summary: Hiccup and the gang visit Berk after being away from their home for more than a year.
Series: Taking Flight (HTTYD Oneshots) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1724164
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	Hall of Memories

The rolling of the waves did little to tame the anxious boiling in Hiccup's stomach. They had been at sea for almost a whole day now, and he should have had more than enough time to brace himself. But every inch they got closer, the more he paced around the boat.

"You're driving me crazy. I hope you get seasick from all that walking," Snotlout grumbled, his arms crossed over his chest. He was never in a good mood since Fishlegs and Ruffnut became courting, and Hiccup had narrowly avoided him punches. Apparently being chief didn't exempt him from his friend's nasty habits.

"Give him a break," Astrid said, glaring at Snotlout. "We haven't been here in almost a year."

"Are you nervous?" Fishlegs asked, watching as Hiccup walked the length of a boat again. Hiccup let out an exasperated sigh and nodded.

"I wonder if someone's taken it over. Maybe the Outcasts. I feel like Alvin would do it."

"Alvin's an ally, he wouldn't take over Berk," Hiccup said, stopping at the bow of the boat, where the sea was becoming lighter and shallower. "Gods, we're almost there."

When he lifted his head, there was a faint shape of the island.

"Thank Thor, I thought I was going to Helheim," Tuffnut said. "Why couldn't we do this when we had our dragons?"

There was an awkward silence as the friends watched their old home become more and more defined as they sailed forward. Astrid led them toward the old docks, which were still in place, and parked their boat carefully. 

Hiccup took a deep breath as he stepped onto the dock. He wasn't sure whether it was going to crumple under his weight, but it held, and as he took another step, and another, it continued to as he continued to climb up toward the old village. 

It was silent behind him. Hiccup took in the overgrown grass and trees. Astrid had to use her ax to cut through branches full of thorns a few times. How could this have all happened in a year?

"It seems like no one's touched it," Fishlegs whispered. They continued up the trail toward the old Great Hall, and Hiccup slowly started to trail behind so Astrid was in the lead. She looked back at him with concern, and he gave her a small smile. She nodded and continued forward, her shoulders back with confidence.

Hiccup nearly had tears forming in his eyes when he passed his old house. He wondered if his father's chair was still in it. He almost took a step toward it, but no one else made a move toward their houses, and he wasn't sure he could handle being back there, anyway. The stairways up to his old room, where Toothless used to sleep next to his bed...it would be too much.

When they passed the Hofferson's old home, he smiled at memories of Astrid sneaking out to go on midnight flights. He thought of when that house had been burned down by the dragon hunters and looked at Astrid. Her eyes were trained on her house and Hiccup jogged a bit to catch up with her.

"Do you want to go on? Did you leave anything?" he asked.

"No," she said quietly. "I-I don't want to go in. Hiccup, I'm not so sure we should have come back. It's deserted. It doesn't feel like home."

He was silent for a moment and took her hand. She squeezed it, letting out a breath as they climbed the steps to the Great Hall.

With a few moments to brace themselves, they pulled open the doors together.

The long tables were still in the halls, where they had shared so many meals. The place where Hiccup had looked through the Book of Dragons with the rolling of thunder in the background. Where he had escaped to think after his father had been gravely injured, and then after he head died.

Hiccup took in a breath, and this time, the tears fell freely down his cheeks.

He could hear his friends behind him, and Fishlegs was looking around the hall for things they may have left behind, but Hiccup could barely register even Astrid's hand in his. He was fifteen again, laughing for the first time in his life with friends. He was eighteen, back from the Edge for a weekend and trying to avoid his father's conversations about chiefly duties. He was twenty, wrestling with Toothless after dark. And here he was, twenty one, only a few months before blushing from Gobber's advice for Hiccup and Astrid to marry, and now, standing in an empty hall.

"I know I said Berk is where the people are," Hiccup said, choking up. Astrid looked up at him and clenched his hand tighter. "But...this is my childhood. I don't even know if I could go back and see the Edge, because just seeing this...everything has Toothless in it, or my dad, or just when things were so much easier." He tried to wipe the tears from his cheeks to no avail. 

Astrid sighed, turning away from the empty hall. "I don't think we'll find anything here. We should probably leave."

Hiccup nodded, attempting to compose himself. He knew Astrid well enough to know she was upset, avoiding his gaze and angrily scuffing her boots on the floor as she walked. Their friends followed them as they left the hall.

Fishlegs was the last to come out, and he was holding an old doll. "A kid must have left it here."

Hiccup reached out and took the doll. It was stuffed, and in the shape of a Terrible Terror. He let out a little laugh at one of the buttons nearly undone, the eye almost falling off. 

"I'm sure someone will want it," he said, stuffing it in his pocket. Fishlegs looke down in the grass, but then launched himself at Hiccup and held him tightly. Hiccup let out a gasp and hugged him back.

"I miss Berk," Fishlegs said sadly.

Hiccup felt another pair of arms wrap around them, and then another, and another, and soon they all fell to the ground with each other's weight. Hiccup was crying now, his shoulders shaking, remembering the times they'd had together just outside in this common ground. Chasing sheep on fire, Astrid punching him when he said something stupid, Snotlout stealing his peg leg and tossing it around with Tuffnut.

"I miss Berk too," Hiccup choked out, but as the arms tightened around him, he found it in him to let the tears stop falling and to just stare at the sky, and let everything wash over him. Memory was a trivial thing, but the thing about them was that they were portable. He didn't need to be in his house to remember when Heather stayed over there when she first arrived, or to be in the arena to remember his act of defiance. 

Standing in overgrown Berk, he realized he remembered exactly what everything was before. And it was better to keep it all there, locked in his memories, kept in a secret hall in his mind.


End file.
